Ensilage machinery.



M. FREEMAN.

ENSILAGE MACHINERY.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.9. 1914.

1,1 86,302. Patented June 6, 1916.

jam/7M? @Wwyd.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MICHAEL FREEMAN, OF BAGINE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TO THE S. FREEMAN & SONS MANUFACTURING 00., OF RACINE, WISCONSIN.

ENsILaGE MACHINERY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 6, 1916.

Application filed December 9, 1914. Serial No. 876,311.

etlicient means in connection with a feed' cutter for elevating ensilage and discharging the same into a ,silo. I

Figure 1 of the drawings represents a partly sectional side elevation of a feedcutter and my improved means therewith for elevating ensilage and discharging the same into a silo, the sectional portion of the view being. indicated by line 11 in Fig. 2; Fig. 2, a horizontal sectional view indicated by line 2-.-2 in Fig. 1.

Referring by numerals to the drawings, 7 indicates the driven shaft of the lmifehead of an ordinary feed-cutter, and fast on' the shaft are auxiliary sprocket-wheels 8 and 9.

The machine is provided with a partly cylindrical hopper 10 into which the cut material descends, and a cylindrical forwardly extending nozzle 10- of the hopper is coupled to a preferable. enlargement 11' of a lower section 11 of a standpipe into which it discharges, and said standpipe section has a lower. outwardly flanged collar 12 rigid thereon and likewise connected to a plate 13 mounted on pillars 14 of a base 14 attached to sills 15, said plate being bolted to the pillars of the base.

Rigidly secured on the upper end of the standpipe section 11 is an outwardly flanged collar 16 in rotatably adjustable connection with a similar collar 17 rigid on the lower end of another section 18 of the standpipe having a flange 19 ofa downward discharging spout 19 suitably fastened thereto. The flange of the collar 17 is shown provided with a series of suitably curved'slots 17 engaged by bolts 17" that also engage the flange of the collar 16 on the standpipesection 11, and thus provision is had for rotatable adjustment of the standpipe section 1.

The material of the hopper, as a whole, the standpipe sections and the spout is preferably sheet-metal, while the several collars, the plate and base aforesaid are preferably castings.

A rear flange 20 of the hopper is fastened to a bearing head, 21 that is also fastened in depending connection with the frame of the feeder-cutter, and another bearing 22 is also provided in connection with said frame. head 21 and the bearing 22, is a shaft 23 of a spiral conveyer, the screw 24 of which conveyer extends from the rear of said hopper through the nozzle thereof and into the standpipe. Fast on the shaft 23 is a bevel-gear wheel 25 in mesh with a bevelgear pinion 26 fast on a spindle 27 for which a hollow bracket-arm 28 of the head 21' serves as a bearing, and a sprocket-wheel Arranged to turn in the hopper 29 fast on the spindle engages a link-belt.

30 that is also engaged by the sprocketwheel 8 on the knife-head shaft of the feed- 32 extends through the plate 13 into a.

matching socket in a bevel-gear wheel 33 for which a bearing stud 34 is provided on the base '14, said: wheels being driven in any desired manner by means (not shown) engaged by a link belt 39 that is also engaged by the sprocket-wheel 9 on the knife-head shaft of the feed-cutter. The shaft-section 32 is part of a spiral-conveyer having the screw 32 thereof revoluble in the standpipe section 11.

The angular lower end of a shaft section 40 has match-fit in an upper end socket of the shaft-section 32, and a bearing-head 41 is provided in the upper end of the standpipe section 18 for the shaft-section 40. A paddle 42 isfast on said shaft-section. 4O opposite the spout 19. A collar 43 on the shaft-section opposes the bearing head 41 as a stop against upper end-thrust of the vertical shaft as a whole.

The cut material is conveyed from the aforesaid hopper into the standpipe and elevated to the discharge-spout into which it is forced by the paddle, also aforesaid,

to find its way by gravity into a silo wherein said spout is projected.

The elevator can be readily detached from the feed-cutter hopper and taken apart to facilitate transportation, and it is to be noted that when said elevator is erected in connection with said hopper, none of the cut material can escape and that it requires comparatively little power to elevate and discharge said material, while at the same time there are no conveyer belts, buckets or lags to get out of order.

I claim:

In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a vertical conveyer tube, a spiral couveyer in the tube, a horizontal convcyer tube communicating with the first the county of Racine and State of /Vis'consin in the presence of two Witnesses.

MICHAEL FREEMAN.

\Vitnesses:

JAMES P. GARVEY, HARVEY S. NELSON. 

